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This focus on secondary gain involves a variety of potential reasons, among them a desire to refrain from work, and to continue receiving financial support from the government. As hypotheses go, this particular subject matter has validity by means of research and evaluation, not to mention self-report by veterans themselves. As noted previously, the population of military personnel identified as engaging in this behavior, is not all encompassing. Many returning veterans do not seek out services and benefits from the government, and there are many more that do report medical and psychological issues without benefit of exaggeration. The following 15-literature reviews will present information to support the hypothesis of pseudo-PTSD presentations among individuals in veteran populations for secondary gains.
Binder and Campbell's research involves a review of 100+ research articles. The depth and breadth of the information presented was often confusing to follow, despite the separation of information with headings. The focus of the review were somatic illnesses among the public as well as a specific group consisting of Persian Gulf War veterans. The research presented the potential for exaggeration with the self-report of an illness. In essence, the participants in the studies illustrated a need to rely upon their disability, self-report, and symptomology to indicate the presence of a medical illness versus direct medical evidence of a medical condition. Binder and Campbell (2004) directed their review to focus on the potential for stress, biological contributors, environment and psychological factors to influence the presence of medically inexplicable disorders including Persian Gulf War illness, gastrointestinal disease, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome (p. 375). While the research by Binder and Campbell is helpful to illustrate the multitude of studies investigating similar hypotheses, there are limitations on what should be the means to identify presentations of this type.
